Brassiere



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' BENJAMIN MAssTAB b. K w

B. MASSTAB BRASSIERE Filed Oct. l, 1952 sept. 2s, 1954 Patented Sept. 28, 1954 2,689,956 BRAssIRE Benjamin Masstab, Brooklyn, N. Y., assignor to Ethel Masstab, Rye, N. Y.

Application October, 1, 1952, Serial No. 312,472

This invention relates to brassires.

My present application is a continuation-inpart of my copending application Serial No. 281,169 for Brassires, filed April 8, 1952.

As with said copending application it is an object of my present invention to provide an improved self-adjusting brassire, that is to say, a brassire which will accommodate itself, within reasonable limits, to different shapes and sizes of busts.

It is a further object of my invention to provide a brassire of the character` described which will mold and control the bust more eniciently than the brassire illustrated, described and claimed in said copending application.

Other objects of my invention will in part be obvious and in part will be pointed out hereinafter.

My invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combinations of elements and arrangements of parts which will be exemplified in the device hereinafter described and of which the scope of application will be indicated in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings in which is shown one of the Various possible embodiments of my invention,

Fig. 1 is a front View of a lay gure wearing a brassire constructed Ain accordance with my invention;

Fig. 2 is a side View of the brassire;

Fig. 3 is an inner fragmentary view of the brassire;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional View through one of the bust cups of the brassire, the same being taken substantially along the line 4-4 of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 5 is a plan view of the two fabric panels from which a bust cup is fabricated.

Referring now in detail to the drawings, the reference numeral Ill denotes a brassire whose construction incorporates the present invention. The particular novelty of the brassire resides in the structure of its two bust cups I2, I4. Inasmuch as these cups are mirror images of one another, the parts of only one cup I2 will be described in detail and the like parts of the other cup I4 will be denoted by the same reference numerals primed.

The bust cup I2 is made from two panels I6, I8 of unidirectionally resilient cloth of the type commonly known as one-way stretch, this comprising by way of example, an inelastic Warp and an elastic Woof.

The panel I6 includes three sections which 2 Claims. (Cl. 2-42) jointly form a single piece. These sections consist of a section 20 which constitutes the outer top section of the bust cup, a section 22 which constitutes the outer bottom section of the bust cup, and a second 24 which constitutes the side panel of the brassire connected to the bust cup. The sole direction of elasticity of the panel I6 is indicated by the arrows A (see Fig. 5). This direction is horizontal, that is to say all parts of said panel, e. g. the bottom edge 26, which are not distorted in fabrication of the bust cup will be unidirectionally resilient horizontally when the brassire is donned.

The panel I8 includes two sections which jointly form a single piece. These sections consist of a section 28which constitutes the inner top section of the bust cup I2 and a section 30 which constitutes the inner bottom section of said bust cup. The sole direction of elasticity of the panel I8 is indicated by the arrows B. This direction is from upper left to lower right, that is to say, all parts of said panel, for example the Section 28, which are not distorted in the fabrication of the bust cup, are unidirectionally resilient along an angle of about 45 to the horizontal running from the apex of the cup to the upper left hand corner thereof when the brassire is donned. More generally, said direction B of resilience, according to the instant invention, simply includes a substantial vertical component. The present application diiers from my aforesaid copending application in this principal respect. How this difference affects the operation of the brassire hereinafter will be pointed out in detail.

The sections 20, 22, 23 and 3D are individually so shaped in a manner well known to the art that when adjacent edges are brought into juxtaposition and sewn together, the sections mutually will form a conical bust cup. The speciiic size and contour of each of the sections may be varied in accordance with current styles and the average shape of busts which the brassire is to accommodate, wherefore it will be understood that the particular pattern illustrated herein is merely v exemplitive as to size and shape.

eral sections 2U, 22, 34, 38 are so laid out on the panels I6, I8 that in the finished bust cup the direction of resilience of each of the sections is as indicated in Figs. 1 and 3, that is to say, in a finished bust cup embodying my invention the outer top section 2U is unidirectionally resilient radially, i. e. toward and away from the apex of the bust cup. The outer bottom section 22 is unidirectionally resilient horizontally. The inner top section 28 is unidirectionally resilient radially and the inner bottom section 3B is unidirectionally resilient horizontally. These several directions of resilience are indicated by the arrows a, b, c, din Figs. 1 and 3.

It is in order to secure such orientation of the direction of resiliency of the different sections that said sections are cut from two pieces of .fabric i-G, I8 whose sole axes of resilience are as indicated by the arrows A, B horizontal and inclined, respectively. For the same reason the sections are angularly displaced from one another in each piece of fabric as initially cut out, the same being illustrated in Fig. 5.

For instance, the section 22 is laid out on a piece of fabric i6 so that the direction of resilience A is parallel to the upper edge 40 of said section. Likewise the section 20 is located so that its lower edge 42 is at an angle to the edge 46 and said edges meet at the outer side of the bust cup. Thus although the section 2t is cut from a piece of fabric which is unidirectionally resilient horizontally, in the finished bust cup the direction of resilience of said section 20 is radial. It will be observed that the lower edge 42 land inner vertical edge i4 of the section 2li denne an inner angle 3.2 which is approximately bisected by the direction of resilience A of the panel it.

The sections lili are laid out on the panel i8 pursuant to the same governing principle. Thus the section 23 is arranged with its inner vertical edge 4S at an angle of approximately 40 to the direction of resilience B and its horizontal edge 48 likewise at about 40 to said direction B so that said direction B bisects the inner angle Moreover, and of controlling importance, the direction of resilience B is substantially normal to the outer edge rig of the inner top section 23. The inner bottom section 3B is laid out with its horizontal edge Ell parallel to the direction of resilience B and its inner vertical edge 52 normal to said direction of resilience.

It will be that when the inner vertical edges lill, 5S are sewn together, the two horizontal edges Kit, 5c are sewn together, the inner vertical edge li?. is sewn to the inner vertical edge 54 of the section 22 and the two horizontal edges all), iii are sewn together, the direction of resilience of the section '26 will be radial, the direction of resilience of the section 22 will be horizontal, the direction of resilience of the section 28 will be radial and the direction of resilience of the section '3G will be horizontal.

The foregoing relative arrangement of the sections of each of the panels requires the presence of darts 53 joining the sections Eil, '22 and 28, 39 respectively. However, this is necessary in any event in order to join Said sections so las to impart the requisite cone shape to the bust cup so that the shaping of the panels cooperates with the direction of resilience of the pieces 1.6, i8 to locate the individual resilient axes of the lseveral sections in proper orientation 4pursuant to my invention. In order to aid in maintaining the bust cup in conical shape when the brassire is donned the zones yalong which the sections 20, 22, 28 and 3E] are joined, i. e. at the darts 56, 58 and at the meeting of the edges d4, 46 and 52, 54, are made dead, i. e. non-elastic along their lengths, as by stitching non-elastic tapes 59 along said zones.

The inner side edges of the bust cups are joined to one another by a central cusped panel 6U fabricated from elastic cloth which is unidirectionally vertically resilient.

The brassire includes the usual shoulder straps 62 extending from the center top of each bust cup to the upper back edge of the brassire.

I have found that a brassire constructed in accordance with my invention as hereinabove described automatically accommodates itself to Various sizes and shapes of busts within a reasonable range. For example, if the bust has a greater base circumference than the smallest bust for which the brassire was designed, the sections 22, 3@ will yield sufficiently to accommodate the larger circumference. If the bust protrudes further from the rib cage than the smallest bust for which the brassire was designed, the sections 2d, 28 will yield sufficiently to accommodate the larger protrusion.

By having the bottom sections, both outer and inner, i. e. the section 22 and the section Si?, unidirectionally resilient horizontally, neither bottom section will yield to a saggingbust. Thus no matter how heavy the bust or how great al load the bust may impose upon these sections during wear, said sections will maintain the contour to which they were originally cut and thereby will maintain a youthful and graceful lower line for the bust. It may be observed that in my said copendin-g application the bottom inner section 3S is resilient circumferentially and although it yields less to a sagging bust than a vertically resilient section, it nevertheless does yield somewhat. By changing the direction of resilience of this section so that the same is unidirectionally resilient horizontally, neither bottom section of the bust cup will yield at all.

The radial resilience of the sections 2li, 28 enable these sections of the bust cup to swell both outwardly and upwardly and thereby accommodate the desirably full upper part of the bust that has been lifted by the bottom section.

Attention is called to the fact that the inner top section 28 has its direction of uni-resilience B `perpendicular to the inner top edge 49 of the bust cup. Due to this construction said edge is dead, i. e. non-resilient, parallel to its length. This isa factor of great importance in enabling a bust to be controlled and properly shaped despite the fact that the bust cup is resilient. I have found that where this edge is not completely dead it tends to spread when a bust is accommodated in the cup. As this edge spreads it ifattens the underlying portion of the bust and appreciably broadens this part of the bust giving an undesirable, unsymmetrical and unnatural appearance to a bust thus molded. In addition, said edge, if possessed of any degree of resilience, tends to sag between its ends and thus undesirably displace the vcenter of the cup. By having the edge dead the entire bust cup hangs therefrom so that said edge in effect functions as an anchor with reference to which the bust cup `derives and holds its shape.

Because the two inner sections 28, Sil are joined integrally to one another at the inner side edge of the bust cup, the inner edge of a bust accommodated within the cup is uniformly rounded without the break conventionally present in ordinary bust cups consistingof quadrants.

A further advantage of a brassire constructed in accordance with my invention is that when the wearer raises either or both arms the brassire will not ride up on the bust to expose the underside thereof as is the case with a conventional brassire. Due to the radial resilience of the sections 20, 28 an upward pull on a shoulder strap consequent upon raising of a wearers arms, simply will stretch these sections but will not pull up the bust cup as a whole.

It thus will be seen that I have provided a brassire which achieves all the objects of my invention and is well adapted to meet the conditions of practical use.

As various possible embodiments might be made of the above invention, and as various changes might be made in the embodiment above set forth, it is to be understood that all matter herein described, or shown in the accompanying drawings, is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. In a brassire, a bust cup consisting of four sections which includes an outer top section,

y acsaons an inner top section, an outer bottom section, an inner bottom section, means securing said sections to one another along juxtaposed edges, the bottom sections being unidirectionally resilient horizontally and the top sections being unidirectionally resilient in a radial direction, the inner top edge of the bust cup being non-resilient.

2. A bust cup as set forth in claim 1 wherein the sections are non-resilient along their juxtaposed edges.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,023,612 Park et al. Dec. l0, 1935 2,211,549 Semons Aug. 13, 1940 2,562,582 Schaumer July 31, 1951 2,651,779 Schaumer Sept. 15, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 403,418 Great Britain Dec. 13, 1933 425,213 Great Britain Feb. 28, 1935 969,672 France May 24, 1950 

